Thanks to the hard working children at Fluff and Gravy Records, the new Drunken Prayer album, THE DEVIL & THE BLUES shall be released on August 21, 2015. The album features members of Freakwater, The Reigning Sound and The Sadies, with artwork by Jon Langford.

As we prepare to welcome The Devil & The Blues, we close the door on The House of Morgan. “Apologies” is the final installment in the album’s video series. Let’s all celebrate the 4th of July with this soon-to-be nationalistic classic.

The layout just came together for our new record, The Devil & The Blues, and we’re beside ourselves with the design. The brilliant Suzie Million$ tied the project together with her singular imaginative vision. I love it when a record looks like it sounds.

Suzie attended and dropped out of a couple of good art schools, the Munson Willliams Proctor Institute in Utica, New York, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
She has also lived in Memphis, New Orleans, and now in Asheville, North Carolina, a rural town that prides itself on it’s lighted roadside arrow signs. In New Orleans, Suzie tended bar at the legendary Saturn Bar, did design and promotion for a rock and roll club, The Howlin’ Wolf, and worked briefly at a fascinating, but pathologically chaotic, folk art gallery in the French Quarter.

Suzie is one of our oldest, dearest friends and we’re proud she deems this project worthy of her considerable talents.

ps
When you get the chance, slap yourself a shady and visit her fun website: SuzieMillions.com

The Devil and The Blues, the new album from Drunken Prayer, will be available worldwide on July 21st from Fluff & Gravy Records and live at a limited number of release shows on both US coasts. The core band on this party record is The Unholy Trio of Morgan Geer (guitar, vox, keys), David Wayne Gay (bass, vox) and Lance Wille (drums).
Guests include Dallas Good of The Sadies (guitar), Aaron Price (keys), Anna Tivel (fiddle), Aryana & Juniana Lanning (background vox), Henry Westmoreland (sax, trumpet) and James “Names” Quong (clarinet). Original artwork by Jon Langford and design by Suzie Million$.

For the first Monday of the year, we bring you ULTRABAD from the House of Morgan series. This is vintage Super 8 footage of 60’s motocross from Morgan Geer’s family’s archive of ultra-badasses from south Alabama.

Today we’re proud to release our new single, Evangeline / Satin Sheets. These are covers of two songs by artists dear to my heart. Evangeline (The Band) was recorded as a duet with our beloved Freakwater‘s Janet Beveridge Bean. Satin Sheets is a song by my favorite songwriter, Willis Alan Ramsey. These were self-recorded at The House of Morgan in Asheville, NC this past summer and made listenable by Ezra Meredith, care of The Deer Lodge in Portland, OR.
As expected, the vinyl 7″ are taking a while to materialize but I’ll let you know as soon as they’re available.

It’s great to be back in the Northwest. The beer is flowing, the volcano’s erupting and the gospel music is still ringing in my ears from last night’s rehearsal at Fluff and Gravy Records.
Congregation, we bring you a gift from Appalachia’s soft white underbelly: the latest video from the House of Morgan series: “Lay Down”.

Congregation, here you have the latest installment from the House of Morgan video series – “Heigh-Ho (Nobody Home)”. This is #5/11. The video features rare shots of a disturbed 1960’s San Francisco.
The traditional song is a 16th century English madrigal that’s rumored to scare away the demons of hard times. It was often sung as a children’s carol at Christmas. The original tracks were recorded in December, 2011 live at KXCI in Tucson, AZ, with mandolin and backing vocals by W.C. Beck.

Splitting time between Portland, Oregon and Asheville, North Carolina, Drunken Prayer released a new album last year called “House of Morgan” on Fluff & Gravy Records.

Below is more with the heart and soul of the band, Morgan Christopher Geer. Read the article on the band here.

First, is this a solo show or a full band show?

Geer: We’ll see. That’s been a thorn in my side since moving back to North Carolina. My band here is composed of loaners so I’ll see who’s available. As of today it looks like Drunken Prayer will be an electric two-piece, drums and guitar.

Was recording “House of Morgan” on a four-track cassette recorder to be a more singular in making songs?

No, it was more like working with driftwood. I took our newfound immobility as an opportunity to work with whatever was at hand, found materials like my limited recording system, unfinished tracks and the instruments I have around me.

How did you get those raw tunings on songs like “Ultrabad” and “KEF-666”? “KEF-666” is dynamite. Playing that must be fun to level at a crowd.

Well they’re probably closer to raw de-tunings. Those two were recorded live with drums and guitar on a Radio Shack PZM mic. The vocals on “Ultrabad” were sung through the pickups of an old Telecaster. Some of what you might be hearing could also be the tape flutter in the initial cassette recording. Unfortunately I’ve yet to play “KEF-666” live since “House of Morgan” came out. I’d love to, but I’ll need a solid band first.

Why led you to revisit “I saw it with My Own Two Eyes,” albeit with a cool co-singer?

This version is creepier. It’s about a UFO encounter I had as a little guy so it felt right. I’m a big Flaming Lips fan and they cover themselves all the time so I figured I could too. It’s really liberating to rid oneself of the rules we put up. The co-singer is me, run through an effects processor that makes me sound like a drowning baby.

“Heigh Ho” is great, hypnotic with a lot of punch.

It’s a 16th Century English madrigal. We used to sing it in my high school chorus at Christmas. I always thought it would make for an interesting Old Time style song, so I recorded the guitar, mandolin and vocals with W.C. Beck at KXCI in Tucson in the middle of a tour, and then I did the rest at home.

Do you see yourself as a restless personality, someone needing constant change of scenery?

Yeah. My single mom and I moved a lot in my formative years. I was forever making new friends and entertaining myself. I’d like to be out playing more than I am now.

Writing songs, are you writing about yourself or the world through as it moves in and around you?

Mostly external but a little of both. I try not to use songwriting just as therapy or navel gazing but it happens. I’m not going to say anything that hasn’t already been said by someone more poetic and qualified, so I try to avoid preaching and philosophizing. I’d rather give you something to preach and philosophize about.

I like lyrics because they’re not necessarily meant to stand alone. Often lines evolve just because the combination of vowels and consonants work well with the melody. The really great thing about that are the unintentional and subjective meanings that can reveal themselves. It’s important to me that the songs have a life of their own, so they can change a lot from performance to performance. The recordings are more like snapshots of what they were doing that day.